You're either with us, or against us

In political communication, the phrase "you're either with us, or against us" and similar variations are used to depict situations as being polarized and to force witnesses, bystanders, or others unaligned with some form of pre-existing conflict to either become allies of the speaking party or lose favor. The implied consequence of not joining the team effort is to be deemed an enemy. An example is the statement of the former US PresidentGeorge W. Bush, who said after 9/11 at the launch of his anti-terrorism campaign in the form "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."[1]

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The statement generally is a descriptive statement identifying the beliefs of the speaker(s), and thus state a basic assumption, not a logical conclusion. It may also be interpreted as a speech act. Sometimes (but not always) it is interpreted as a splitting or a false dilemma, which is an informal fallacy.[2]

Some see the statement as a way of persuading others to choose sides in a conflict which does not allow the position of neutrality.[3] Only when there are no alternatives like a middle ground does the phrase hold validity as a logical conclusion. The phrases are a form of argumentation.[4]

From the Book of Joshua(Chap. 5:13): "It happened, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him, and said to him, 'Are you for us, or for our adversaries?'"

The Synoptic Gospels attribute the following quote to Jesus: "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30), as well as its contrapositive, "Whoever is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50; Mark 9:40).[5]

Marcus Tullius Cicero, in an oration before Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, published as Pro Ligario, made the following distinction: "For we heard you say that we looked upon all as enemies that were not with us; but that you looked upon all as friends that were not against you."[6]

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in a speech discussing the Chief Committee for Political Education, told the assembled delegates that "It is with absolute frankness that we speak of this struggle of the proletariat; each man must choose between joining our side or the other side. Any attempt to avoid taking sides in this issue must end in fiasco."[7]

George Orwell wrote in his 1942 essay "Pacifism and the War", "If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'. The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security."

Benito Mussolini declared in speeches across fascist Italy: "O con noi o contro di noi"—You're either with us or against us.[8]

Hillary Clinton said on September 13, 2001: "Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price."[12]

President George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 said, "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."[13]

Vic Toews, Canadian Public Safety Minister, said on February 13, 2012: "... either stand with us or with the child pornographers" in response to questions from Quebec MP Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis) regarding extensive Privacy Commission concerns about 'warrant-less access' to all Canadian Internet and Cell phone accounts under the proposed legislation contained in bill C-30 "Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act" introduced the following day (February 14, 2012) in the House of Commons of Canada.[14][15][16]

Towards the end of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Colonels Korn and Cathcart equate fighting for their country with fighting for the benefit of the two of them. Korn tells the protagonist Yossarian: "You're either for us or against your country. It's as simple as that." A reviewer of Catch-22 found this "flawless" logical indulgence by the commanding colonels to be comparable to Heller's parody of Charles Erwin Wilson's statement, often paraphrased as, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country".[19]

In the movie Ben-Hur, the protagonist meets with his childhood friend Messala. He has barely said hello to Ben-Hur when he is dunning him for the names of those Jews who are speaking out against the Roman occupation. Ben-Hur refuses to act as informer, and Messala utters, "You're either with me or against me".

In Act III of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Deputy Governor John Danforth states, "But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there is no road between."

A professional wrestling faction in WWE, called The Nexus, used the slogan "You're either Nexus, or you're against us".

Stephen Colbert has parodied the sentence on several occasions, for instance with "Either you are for the war [in Iraq] or you hate America" and "George W. Bush: great president or the greatest president?", after which he usually adds "It's that simple!"[20]

Futurama makes a parody of this concept, when the character Zapp Brannigan expresses disdain about the members of the Neutral Planet who didn't take side in a conflict by commenting concerns like "With enemies you know where they stand but with neutrals? Who knows? It sickens me" or "What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?"

^"Bolstering Tyranny". Milwaukee Journal. Journal Company. 30 September 1970. p. 18. Retrieved 15 October 2015 – via Google News Archive. You make yourself ridiculous by thinking you can do anything. The word is divided in two. The Russians and the Americans, no one else. What are we? Americans. Behind me there is the government, behind the government is NATO, behind NATO is the US. You can't fight us, we are Americans.